Suffragists -- United States; Women -- Suffrage -- United States
this interpretation of democracy,—seen old governments like Great
Britain, which did not profess to be democratic, promise readily and as
of course this justice to women, though they had before refused it, the
strange revelations of this war having made many things new and plain
to governments as well as to peoples.
Are we alone to refuse to learn the lesson? Are we alone to ask and
take the utmost that women can give,—service and sacrifice of every
kind,—and still say that we do not see what title that gives them to
stand by our sides in the guidance of the affairs of their nation and
ours? We have made partners of the women in this war; shall we admit
them only to a partnership of sacrifice and suffering and toil and not
to a partnership of privilege and of right? This war could not have
been fought, either by the other nations engaged or by America, if it
had not been for the services of the women,—services rendered in every
sphere,—not only in the fields of effort in which we have been
accustomed to see them work, but wherever men have worked and upon the
very skirts and edges of the battle itself. We shall not only be
distrusted but shall deserve to be distrusted if we do not enfranchise
them with the fullest possible enfranchisement, as it is now certain
that the other great free nations will enfranchise them. We cannot
isolate our thought or our action in such a matter from the thought of
the rest of the world. We must either conform or deliberately reject
what they propose and resign the leadership of liberal minds to others.
The women of America arc too noble and too intelligent and too devoted
to be slackers whether you give or withhold this thing that is mere
justice; but I know the magic it will work in their thoughts and
spirits if you give it them. I propose it as I would propose to admit
soldiers to the suffrage, the men fighting in the field for our
liberties and the liberties of the world, were they excluded. The tasks
of the women lie at the very heart of the war, and I know how much
stronger that heart will beat if you do this just thing and show our
women that you trust them as much as you in fact and of necessity
depend upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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